Keep Her Safe by K.A. Tucker

Author:K.A. Tucker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books

CHAPTER 31

Officer Abraham Wilkes

April 24, 2003

“Better luck next time!” Mantis hollers from the door of the men’s changing room, grinning widely as he strolls in. “Not a bad game, Wilkes.” He raises his hand to deliver a fist-bump.

Normally I’d respond by reminding him how many points I scored, which is always triple what he earned, at minimum. Today, I stay quiet, hesitating a few beats before finally meeting his knuckles.

If he notices my reluctance, he doesn’t let on.

I bide my time, waiting until the last two guys are gone, leaving us alone in the room. “Saw the news on the big bust.”

“Fucking awesome haul, right?” He yanks off his jersey. The guy is a human tank—stocky legs and a thick pad of muscle around his torso, impossible to knock down. “We got a good tip.”

“Strange, though, that you didn’t find money, isn’t it? Where there’s drugs, there’s cash, I thought.”

Mantis rifles through his locker for a few beats. “He was moving his stash and decided he needed to get a little action on the way. What can I say—the guy’s as dumb as a prairie dog.”

“So, he didn’t have a duffel bag of money in his trunk?”

That sloped forehead of his looks all the more menacing as a deep frown forms across it. “What are you gettin’ at, Wilkes?”

“Just that I was at the Lucky Nine motel that night.”

He snorts, then rubs his nostrils furiously. The word is he’s broken it so many times, his sense of smell doesn’t work. That’s the only excuse anyone can come up with for how much cheap cologne he doses himself with every day. “What, Dina not giving you enough at home?”

I bite my tongue against the urge to cuss him out for mentioning my wife’s name. “I was looking for someone. But that’s beside the point. I was there, sittin’ in my car and watchin’ the whole show go down. Surprised you didn’t notice me.”

Mantis throws a towel around his waist to cover his nakedness. “Then you know that guy is right where he deserves to be.”

“And the money? Is that right where it deserves to be?” Under your mattress?

He chuckles softly, but there’s an edge to the sound. “You’re mistaken. There was no cash in the trunk.”

“That’s not what I saw.”

“Good luck proving that.”

Cocky bastard. I grab my backpack and march out before I do something I’ll regret, like hit the guy.

I have my answer.

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